Norfolk Academy faculty and staff recommend books!

Gillian Moore – Teacher, Sixth Grade English and Science

Favorite adult book recommendation — A Heart So White by Javier Marias

This story is somewhat of an “anti-detective” novel, following Juan, a translator working for the Spanish government, who hears something in a

conversation that wasn’t meant for him to know or translate. I love this book because it forces readers to acknowledge that we hear/learn so many things that we can never “un-know” and to question the cost of secrecy and ambivalence. (“My hands are of your color; but I shame/To wear a heart so white” – Macbeth.)

Orphaned brothers Prosper and Bo run away from their foster home in Germany to Venice, Italy where they meet a group of “street” children living together in a movie theater. I read this book over and over again as a child and Funke’s beautiful descriptions of Venice are what first inspired my love for the city.